Ken Griffin’s Citadel HQ Tower in Brickell to Include Hotel

Ken Griffin is advancing plans for a $1 billion headquarters tower for his Citadel and Citadel Securities in Miami’s Brickell.

Architecture firm Foster + Partners is designing plans for one of the tallest towers in Miami that will include a high-end hotel on the top floors, while environmental testing on the site has started, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing renderings viewed by the publication. The progress comes nearly a year after Griffin parted ways with would-be tower co-developer, Chicago-based Sterling Bay. The separation was due to Griffin’s concerns over whether Sterling Bay could finalize the project, according to the Journal.

The headquarters will rise on a 2.5-acre bayfront lot, at 1201 Brickell Bay Drive, that Griffin bought for a record $363 million in 2022. The height would be limited by Federal Aviation Administration restrictions, which cap Miami buildings at 1,049 feet.

Griffin, a billionaire Florida native, moved his Citadel and Citadel Securities’ headquarters from Chicago to Miami in 2022. Until the new tower is built, employees are working at leased space, including at Southeast Financial Center at 200 South Biscayne Boulevard in downtown Miami and in the future, at 830 Brickell in Miami’s financial district. Vlad Doronin’s OKO Group and Cain International are developing the 55-story 830 Brickell at 830 Brickell Plaza. While the tower topped off in 2022 and it was slated for completion later that year, construction still is ongoing.

Griffin’s wager on South Florida spans both commercial and residential purchases. Also in Brickell, he bought the 28-story 1221 Brickell Avenue office building for $286.5 million in 2022, and an apartment building at 1250 Brickell Bay Drive in Miami and the adjacent vacant lot at 1260 Brickell Bay Drive for $20 million, combined, in 2022.

Last summer, Griffin also dropped $83 million for the three-story office building at 125 Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, after scooping up the adjacent commercial property at 151 Worth Avenue.

In 2022, the billionaire also bought Adrienne Arsht’s waterfront Miami estate at 3031 and 3115 Brickell Avenue in Coconut Grove for $106.9 million. The deal marked the first single-family home sale in Miami-Dade County to top $100 million.

— Lidia Dinkova